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Yesterday was officially the first day of summer vacation for all of us. I saw my family for dinner of burgers and salad. It was delicious.

Today, we times everything so our plans worked out with Ws nap schedule beautifully.

First, we took the kids to the Brookbanks Park on their bikes while W napped in the stroller. By the time we headed back, it was close to 10:30.

So off to The Evergreen Brickworks we went. We met my brother and his daughter there, had Jamie Kennedy’s famous French fries and walked around exploring the ecosystem. The kids played a little in the Children’s Garden, watering some plants and painting rocks. Michael napped Willow in the Tula. ﻿

Our last activity of the day is swimming at the YMCA and all of us went in the pool. It was so quiet due to the fact that it’s a long weekend. I think the swimming tuckered W out. She’s been sleeping since 3:47pm. The kids are playing in the mat room while we wait for W to wake. ﻿

We’re going to go for dinner after at Tasty Delight on Leslie. It’s our favourite go-to inexpensive place for food. Then it’s home time for bed.

Overall it has been a great day. Now, this is how you do a staycation!

It’s not often that my babies will nap for an hour or more without too much effort. I took the girls to the parkway plaza just to get out of the house and to visit the library.

Michael had mentioned using Camilla on Willow for teething and I thought to buy a box – might as well. 10 vials for $8.99 or 30 for $15.99 – that was a no brainer. ﻿

MImmediately after I purchased it I gave W a dose. She liked it and kept opening her mouth for more. She was due for her nap in about less than an hour so I’d hoped for it to work by then.

After a visit to the library and the grocery store, she grew tired and started to fuss. So I left the mall to walk outside. The humidity level had dropped to 37% by now and you could really tell the difference. The winds were blowing and it felt nice.

By the time we reached home, she was already asleep. Being hot and tired I didn’t want to walk anymore. So I parked her and played with Violet. I was worried she would hear Vs voice and wake up. Luckily she didn’t and ended up sleeping for almost an hour – which is so rare!

I guess those nights where Willow stayed awake for 3 hrs were nothing compared to the last two nights. Last night was especially brutal.

Haven’t had breakfast yet. My hips, neck and Back are aching. Even my ankles are aching. I don’t even know what to do anymore. I feel like crying as I’m going crazy with this sleeplessness.

I’ve read that the real teething lasts for about 8 days, with the teeth/tooth erupting at about day 5. This feels likes its been happening for quite sometime now.

I’m trying to be so patient but all I’m going with is sleep I managed to get from 8:30-10pm and then from 1:20-5:30. The 1st hour and a half was the only time I slept in the bed without her on me.

(As I type this, she just began to calm down. I’m hoping she will sleep for at least 2 hrs.).

You see, people who say that you gotta nap when the baby naps don’t know the real truth about baby sleep. You see, I used to be able to put her in the crib and walk away and then she would sleep. But in times like these where she is teething, it doesn’t work.

So not only am I beyond exhausted from a lack of sleep, I also cannot rest because I’ve got to nap her on me. The swing was not successful and a stroller nap will be short – guaranteed under an hour. I’m screwed either way.

And to make things even more challenging, my 4yo is home as school ended the first week of June. Being a stay-at-home parent is tougher than most people think. Don’t ever let people tell you that it’s not.

Normally I manage because I let her watch an hour of tv, then we do some drawing or writing and play outside. By that time W would’ve slept for 1.5-2 hrs and then we go to the library or park.

Our road trip started out a little rocky- we weren’t as organized or prepared as we usually are when we plan for trips. It was a big rush to get out of the house because we were trying to get on the road for Vs nap. We even forgot Peso 1 and 2 at home.

I drove first. Getting over the border was a long wait – an hour. M had to do an emergency bottle pee for Z because he had to go. V had fallen asleep for an hour but woke up in tears. I think she was having a bad dream. We stopped at Target in Buffalo for a break – food and shopping.

We didn’t shop for long because we thought we would stop by and shop at another Target with more time. We got a jug of milk, some Mac n cheese (for dinner last night), chocolate marshmallows, and milk straws. After lunch was the rest of the drive to Rochester.

M drove this time and it took less time than we thought. We were thrilled to be out of the car and unpack in the hotel room. I have to say that the hotel is very clean and we really liked the fact that our room rate came with dinner on the week nights.

Immediately, Z wanted to go swimming he’d been so excited about it that I think it was part of the reason why he didnt nap in the car. Neither did V, actually. So as fast as we changed, we went down to the pool and stayed for 30 minutes, before Z quickly announced he had to do #2. And we were out and up in our room.

Dinner was on the house and both kids, unfortunately, had Mac n cheese. M ran to Wegman’s to get salad and veggies. Both kids were starving so I let them eat. V fed herself from the bowl

That night, both kids were asleep by 7:30pm. It was a little rough because both kids wanted me but we also only had one bed to sleep on. M and I had some quiet time once the kids fell asleep to just sit and plan our next day. We lwent to bed around 8:40pm since that was Vs first nap.

Sadly, both of us kept waking up throughout the night because it was our first night. Subconsciously we were also checking to make sure neither one of the kids, especially V, was getting close to the edge of the bed. At one point, she was sleeping across the lower half of the bed, on top of Ms legs.

It was one of those, “OMG, it’s only 12:30 am?” nights. Those nights when the time just don’t seem to move fast enough…if you know what I mean.

Poor girl is congested though. I think it’s this damn teeth that are making her snotty. It can’t be that she’s sick again – or maybe she is. She so stuffed up she doesn’t want to eat sometimes. And when she nurses, especially this morning after I picked her up, all I could hear was her mucus moving back and forth.

Still, at almost 20 months, she only has 10 teeth. When she’s feeling well she has a great appetite. I’m only hoping that spring will bring in more teeth – like the plants and flowers. Lol

Z, on the other hand, wakes up every so often, crying, for different reasons. Last night it was because he got all sweaty. The other night, his knee was hurting. And another, he wanted socks. We never know when he will wake up at night. Hopefully he will sleep through since he was exhausted to the point of crankiness tonight.

When it comes to date nights, we’re kind of new at it. We didn’t start until a year and a half ago. Our kids don’t trust a lot of people other than us. We got lucky when we found a babysitter that they’d be willing to be left with.

Polly is young and fun. She used to being my student and she also knows the kids from Hillcrest camp. She plays, eats dinner, reads books with them and puts them to bed. It’s great and Michael and I get our time.

Our date began with a visit to Lee Valley Tools. We just picked up a can of General Finishes milk pain in antique white and a can of satin top coat. I’m so excited. We have been wanting to do some renos on the kitchen but are tight on funds.

Dinner is at Sushi Legend. Our favourite sushi restaurant of all time. Great service and food. They recently upgraded their menu to an iPad menu where you select items and send your order in on the iPad. So awesome!!!

We ate a lot more than what’s shown as we were starving. Nevertheless we really enjoyed the dinner. And as much as we love dining out with our three kids, it can get very hectic and it’s hard to enjoy it. This way, we ate slowly and talked.

I have to say though that one caveat with date nights is that it DOES cost us money. It ain’t cheap – but sanity is priceless.

Everyone’s got that one friend with the cool occupation. Ours is an osteopath/rmt/TCM Doctor. If there’s anyone that knows a lot about the ins and outs of the human body, it’s Sam.

Yesterday afternoon I started experiencing back spasms that radiated across my upper/mid back. Even the bottom parts of my ribs hurt. Being upright felt the best and it worst when I was lying down on my back.

Simple movements like turning over and having hiccups hurt like hell. I woke up in excruciating pain this morning around 4 and Michael got me an ice pack and a heat pack to help ease the pain.

I had never felt anything like it before. I was wincing and whimpering from the pain. I wanted it to stop.

For the very first time, I had the cupping method after acupuncture accompanied by some mild electric currents. The entry of the needles were not felt that much – except for one spot. The currents passing through literally felt like tapping – just like how Sam has explained it.

The nice thing about going to an eastern medicine Doctor is that they don’t just diagnose and prescribe. They ask questions and they feel for and examine your overall body’s health. The truth is that everything in your body is connected.

So as part of my treatment I had accupuncture and cupping, followed by a deep tissue massage to increase and encourage blood circulation in the injured tissues.

The sight of the cups all over my back was more terrifying than those of the needles all over my back. It’s due in part to the all the bruising after. My back felt so tight, as if my skin was pulled taut and the pressure of the suction made my back feel so heavy. It’s such a weird feeling.

As I sit here typing this entry, I feel tenderness in the back, flu-like symptoms, and overall soreness. I should hope to feel better tomorrow. My muscles are still sore like before but I guess this is going to be a slow healing process.

I’ve been away from blogging for a week (or more, I don’t know) due to Willow’s teething. She’s been having some rough nights, staying up for 2-3 hrs, which makes me exhausted. I give her tempta before bed and it helps her settle.

So, in my absence, other than being a zombie, I’ve actually been working extra hard on finishing the kitchen. We even managed to take the drawer panels off and painted every single panel.

The kitchen is finally complete. It looks much brighter and less outdated. All it took was two cans of milk paint and half a can of semi gloss varnish. A project that costed about &150 in material. Not bad considering it would’ve cost a heck of a lot more if we switched he cabinets.

So, it has been a slow process – painting and varnishing th kitchen cabinets. I started last Friday and am almost done with 70% of them. The drawer panels are a bit of a pain to remove. We still need to paint 2more sets of doors and 4 drawer panels. But the finished ones look great.

We’re so happy with the results of th General Finishes Milk Paint. It is the easiest and most economical solution indeed. We have a lot more work ahead of us as we also need to paint the cabinet boxes.

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Now we are thinking of leaving one of the set of doors off – to display pores and bowls and keep the kitchen looking lighter. I can’t wait to finish this project!